Sakura Haruno
Sakura Haruno 'is a jōnin-level kunoichi of Konohagakure and a talented medical-nin under the tutelage of the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade. She is also the main tritagonist of the ''Naruto/Naruto Shippuden ''franchise and a long-time member of Team Kakashi. Physical Appearance Sakura is an attractive and slim teenage girl of below average height. She has shoulder-length bright pink hair, large green eyes, and fair skin. Sakura was often bullied due to her rather large forehead hence her nickname of "Billboard Brow", due to this she wore her bangs over her forehead in an attempt to cover it, though Ino encouraged her to wear her hair back. She now has a blue rhombus mark on her forehead, similar to Tsunade's known as the Strength of a Hundred Seal. During her medical work, she has the tendency to pin her hair up in a ponytail. Sakura wears a red tank-top with a zipper, black shorts underneath a short pink apron skirt, a pair pink elbow protectors, a pair of black gloves, a pair of black, low-heel, calf-high sandals, and wears a red cloth forehead protector to accentuate her face, which she uses as a headband. She is also armed with a tanto which she wears above her medical pouch. When she was not on a mission, she wore her regular red sleeveless shirt, with a light yellow short sleeve shirt under it, and a navy-colored skirt. Personality Sakura is a mature and self-centered, yet cheerful, kind-hearted and gentle individual. She is very critical of boys or troublemakers, especially of Naruto, and has shown to have a massive short temper at times, and has hit people out of anger before on more than one occasion (the victim usually being Naruto and now Sasuke), but is still her usual self on the surface. She has a very strong sense of being useful, and is often frustrated with herself for being a burden and not being helpful. One of her greatest regrets was relying solely on Naruto to bring Sasuke back, burdening him with the promise while she couldn't do anything but cry. It was with that resolve that she sought apprenticeship from Tsunade and since training with her, Sakura has improved considerably since Part I, but still frets over her usefulness plenty. She is rather sensitive and is quick to cry, usually because of things relating to Naruto and Sasuke. At her core, she is compassionate, determined, and courageous, willing to sacrifice herself and combat those she knows to be superior to her to defend her team. Sakura has also shown that despite her being over-critical, overbearing and blunt at times, especially with Naruto, she can also be supportive of her friends, as seen when she cheered for Naruto after he defeated Kiba and Neji, or when she encouraged Hinata to confess her feelings towards Naruto by "being herself". Sakura can also be reckless, due to her desire to catch up in strength with Naruto and Sasuke, her protective and over-protectiveness of them, and prove her worthiness as a ninja, which often leads her to impulsively attack her opponents and get rescued by her comrades. Sakura generally doesn't back down from a fight despite the tough odds, a trait she inherited from her master's contempt for losing in any occasion, and is shown to have a strong will, and refuses to give up on fights. She is generally clear-headed, shrewd and rational when faced with a crisis, though her emotions have been known to cloud her thoughts at times. Sakura has also shown somewhat of a perverted side, being excited by Konohamaru Sarutobi's Sexy: Boy on Boy Jutsu. Unlike the rest of Team Kakashi, Sakura has not suffered any heavy losses during her childhood. Therefore, Sakura takes for granted things that her team-mates desire, such as family and friends. She nevertheless tries to be understanding of her team and others, and does not hesitate to ask if she does not understand something or if it bothers her. From the start, Sakura had a deep infatuation for Sasuke, rooted in his appearance, cunning, cool attitude, and prodigious talents. Gradually, Sakura learned the reasons behind his actions and how Sasuke's tragic past has shaped him into the person he is. As a result, she became protective and caring for his well-being, which allowed her feelings for him to turn into genuine love. When Sasuke began to defect from the Hidden Leaf Village, Sakura did all that she could to stop him from leaving, such as professing her love for him and even offering to join him. Despite thanking her and sounding grateful, Sasuke knocked Sakura unconscious and left. Sakura, cursing herself for not being strong enough to stop Sasuke from defecting, ultimately decided to help Naruto retrieve Sasuke back to the Hidden Leaf. However, as time went on and Sasuke became an increasingly more dangerous criminal, along with becoming immensely guilt-ridden upon learning of Naruto's feelings for her and how both she and Sasuke had made him suffer from Sai, Sakura was saddened and distraught at the notion that Sasuke could not and would not return to the Hidden Leaf and he would have to be killed to prevent a war between nations, but decided she would do it herself, oblivious to the fact that she was outmatched by Sasuke. In the end, she found herself unable to kill Sasuke, which nearly cost Sakura her life. Upon seeing Naruto's resolve to bring Sasuke back no matter the cost, Sakura decided she would put her faith in both of them. Inner Sakura A significant trait of Sakura's personality is mainly her brashness. Eventually, those feelings were turned inwardly, in the form of "'Inner Sakura" - a manifestation of her inner emotions. In addition to comic relief, Inner Sakura's appearances are typically marked by an exclamation of her favorite catchphrase, "Cha!". Inner Sakura is unique as it is in a way a second will within Sakura's mind. When Ino used the Mind Body Switch Technique on her, Inner Sakura was able to repel the user from her body, suggesting that Sakura has a split personality, consisting of the "Inner Sakura" and her normal personality. Although she appears quite frequently at the start of the Naruto series, after her apprenticeship started with Tsunade, and Sakura began to subconsciously adopt some of her master's mannerisms, these feelings would actually manifest through Sakura herself, in violent outbursts that would result in Naruto usually being hit for his foolish or perverted actions, or hitting Sasuke for either his constant bickering with Naruto, or bluntness for authority. Despite this, however, Inner Sakura will still manifest in some cases such as when Naruto mouthed off to Tsunade. She disciplined him before Tsunade could, noting how fearsome Tsunade could be in cases such as those. Synopsis Main Article: Sakura Haruno/Synopsis Abilities Immense Strength: Sakura possesses immense superhuman strength, due to her training with Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage and one of the three Sannin. By building up and releasing her chakra with precise timing, Sakura could easily demolish any obstacle and turn it to rubble. She can even shatter the ground and break through hard metal such as steel, titanium, and even platinum. An opponent struck by her full strength could suffer blunt force trauma resulting in broken bones, ruptured organs, or even death. Through repeated use, Sakura no longer needs to put any conscious effort into using this strength, and so can use it instantly. Her strength, coupled with her medical expertise and the beauty she gained over the time skip, had caused many to see Sakura as a younger version of Tsunade, or even someone who could even surpass Tsunade. However, while Sakura's strength derives from this technique, Tsunade has been noted to possess incredible raw strength much greater than this ability, which is enhanced even further to monstrous levels when using it. This strength was great enough to completely immobilize a White Zetsu, which are extremely durable, with just one blow. Sakura can also lift a bolder nearly twice her size, throw the Lion-Headed Cannon with enough force and speed that it caught Sasori by surprise, and stop an airborne Sasori from reaching his target, later smashing him to pieces. She can also destroy anything metal-based material, like iron, zinc and titanium, but not platinum. Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Sakura is highly skilled in taijutsu during her training with Tsunade, mainly relying on her punches, along with grapples and takedowns. She can even use her legs for kicks and heel drops. She also uses her chakra to enhance the strength of her punches or kicks for more devastating blows. Enhanced Speed and Reflexes: Sakura has great speed and agility, and has incredible reflexes to dodge her opponent's attacks. She also learned to read her enemies' attack patterns and thus greatly increase her evasive skills as a field medic. From this, she could evade a barrage of poisoned senbon, a multitude of puppet arms, and help defeat one hundred puppets unharmed, hardly needing Chiyo's assistance later on. Enhanced Endurance: From her training with Tsunade, Sakura has also inherited her master's resilience and contempt for losing, able to continue fighting after being surrounded by a poisonous cloud, and using an explosive tag to dispel it. She pushed herself to keep fighting Sasori despite being poisoned and survived long enough to be healed. Enhanced Durability: Sakura shows great durability, able to withstand continuous, deadly attacks from powerful opponents and continue to fight onwards, a trait in which she got from her master's resilience to not lose a fight. Medical Ninjutsu: Sakura's naturally refined control of her chakra had been taken to new heights over the time skip, an ability utilized to its fullest by the training she had done with Tsunade. With her excellent chakra control, Sakura had turned into an excellent medical-nin, and had shown herself to be able to heal fatal injuries with relatively little effort, even when more experienced medics would deem it a lost cause. She also has shown extensive knowledge of poisons having been taught by her senior pupil Shizune - learning how to imbue weapons such as kunai, with poison. She also has an extensive knowledge of herbal medicines, surpassing even the knowledge of Chiyo as well as other chemicals such as powerful sleeping gases taught to her by Tsunade. Her knowledge was great enough to withdraw Sasori's advanced poison directly from Kankuro's body, and use that as a base template to create multiple antidotes swiftly afterwards. During her fight with Sasori, she was able to start healing herself even with a poisoned sword still lodged in her abdomen, which Sasori commended on. At the end of Part I when Tsunade observed Sakura successfully heal a fish with the Mystic Palm Technique, Tsunade remarked that Sakura had come so far, and she hadn't seen such talent since Shizune. Sakura can also assist with autopsies, as seen when she and Shizune performed an autopsy on a White Zetsu during the Fourth Great Ninja War, and she has knowledge of cells and DNA. A few individuals have even commented that Sakura has the potential to one day rival Tsunade in terms of medical skill, and perhaps even surpass her given enough time, though Sakura has stated that Tsunade's skills are far greater than her own. Sakura has also proved capable of using a chakra scalpel in order to make incisions into flesh and perform surgery or very direct heart massage. Summoning Technique: Sakura is able to summon Katsuyu and other slugs, due to her training with Tsunade. By having the slug divide and attach themselves to the wounded individuals, like Tsunade, Sakura was capable of healing multiple injuries at different locations simultaneously. Shizune noted that this was quite a feat as it was the first time that Sakura had summoned Katsuyu. High Intelligence: Sakura's most astonishing trait is her high-level intelligence. Her intellect was able to allow her to get high grades during her time at the Ninja Academy. Sakura has a keen talent for observation and analyzing, which she uses to overcome most forms of deception. Sakura could also cleverly set traps, that could be triggered by herself to attack the enemy, and even use obvious traps as decoys to lead opponent's into other traps. In Part II, along with her other attributes, Sakura's exceptional intelligence and keen observation skills also improved during her training with Tsunade, who taught her to read and decipher the attack patterns of her enemies and act accordingly. As a result, she could now read complex patterns in her opponent's attacks, even opponents as strong as Sasori, a feat which even surprised an experienced war veteran like Chiyo. When Sakura along with her team encountered Tobi and his technique, Sakura was able to assume its mechanism and deduce that Tobi was only pretending to be affected. Sakura is also shown to be skilled at planning and deceiving, being able to formulate a plan to kill Sasuke by the use of a poison and prevent Kiba, Sai and Lee from following her by the use of a sleeping gas bomb. Great Chakra Power: During the start of her shinobi career, Sakura naturally possesses high amounts of chakra energy, but after training with Tsunade, her chakra strength level has increased greatly to match that of a captain-class combatant. Stemming from her training with Tsunade, Sakura's chakra reserves greatly increased, proving able to supplement her taijutsu with chakra for a long period of time without noticeable exhaustion. After completing her Strength of a Hundred Seal, she gained access to enormous amounts of chakra. She could, in conjunction with Katsuyu, heal and replenish the chakra reserves of the entire Allied Shinobi Forces, despite not fully releasing the seal. Her chakra is pink. *'Masterful Chakra Control': At the start of the Naruto series, Sakura discovered that she had an excellent control over her chakra, and as such she had an innate ability to use techniques to their maximum efficiency without wasting any chakra. Kakashi pointed out that her ability to gather chakra from every part of the body and then using it with great timing made her superior to her team-mates in that respect. While this particular ability was never put to great use in Part I, her chakra control became a focal point of Sakura's fighting style and medical abilities in Part II. The pinnacle of Sakura's control was seen during the Fourth Shinobi World War; for over three years, she has stored up huge amounts of chakra on a point on her forehead, developing the Strength of a Hundred Seal and the ability to release it. She was also able to use the Ninja Art Creation Rebirth — Strength of a Hundred Technique in battle after releasing the seal. Furthermore, Sakura has shown the ability to transfer the chakra directly from her seal into other individuals, leading to her Strength of a Hundred markings to spread over the recipient. Years after the war, due to her mastering the Strength of a Hundred Seal, her chakra control improved to the point that she was able rapidly accumulate large amounts of chakra within her body without her enemies noticing. Due to these skills, Sakura has been noted to have a natural aptitude for genjutsu, though thus far she has only been seen dispelling it, even Kabuto's sleep-inducing genjutsu. In the anime before the Chunin Exams, she could instantly recognize a genjutsu casted by a disguised Iruka trying to trick her into not participating in the exams, noting Sasuke would never ask her out, and only playing along to find out who casted the genjutsu. She could also decipher at the start of the Chunin Exams that they were trapped in a surrounding-altering genjutsu. Equipment Antidote: Tanto: Relationships Family *Kizashi Haruno (Father) *Mebuki Haruno (Mother) Friends/Allies *Naruto Uzumaki (Childhood best friend, old classmate and teammate, close as siblings) *Sasuke Uchiha (Childhood best friend, teammate, and boyfriend) *Kakashi Hatake (Sensei) *Sai (Close friend and teammate) *Yamato *Tsunade (Mentor) *Shizune (Senior Mentor) *Hidden Leaf 11 **Shikamaru Nara (Close friend) **Choji Akimichi **Ino Yamanaka (Best friend and arch-rival) **Rock Lee **Neji Hyuga **Tenten **Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru **Shino Aburame **Hinata Hyuga (Close friend and younger sister figure) *Might Guy *Team Taka **Karin Uzumaki (Best friend) *Mecha-Naruto *The Sand Siblings **The Fifth Kazekage: Gaara **Kankuro **Temari (Good friend) *Chiyo (Ex tag-team partner) *Killer Bee *Omoi *Karui *Chojuro *Karin Kurosaki *Momo Hinamori *Erza Scarlet Rivals *Ino Yamanaka (Arch-rival) Enemies *Ryuha Armament Alliance **Shin Uchiha **Sho Uchiha **Keliah *Madara Uchiha *Obito Uchiha *The Ten-Tails *The Akatsuki **Itachi Uchiha **Deidara **Sasori *The Orochimaru Band **Orochimaru **Kabuto Yakushi **The Sound Five *Hidden Sound Village *Sasuke Uchiha (formerly) *Team Taka (formerly) *Zabuza Momochi and Haku *The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist *Menma Uzumaki Theme Songs Background in Other Media Novels * Movies * Video Games * Trivia * Quotes *''Lady Tsunade's will is riding on this fist!'' *''I am Sakura Haruno, pupil of Lady Tsunade, one of the Sannin! Don't underestimate me!'' *(To Sasuke Uchiha) Battles & Events References Site Navigation Category:Characters Category:Female Category:Human Category:Kunoichi Category:Jōnin Category:Konohagakure Characters Category:Medical-nin Category:Team Kakashi Category:Hidden Leaf 11 Category:Shinobi Union Category:Team Heroes Category:SS-Class Combatants Category:Naruto/Naruto Shippuden Series Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Allied Shinobi Forces Category:Allied Forces Category:Eight Man Squad Category:Grand Allies Games Participants Category:Playable Characters Category:Most Popular Characters Category:Rookie 9 Category:Team Anko Category:Kazekage Rescue Team Category:Team C Category:Insurgence Members